Imprinting machine



H. C. WILKINSON IMPRINTING MACHINE July 1 Filed Jan. 18, 1922 gvyvwnfoz .ifm-nii Wil/Einsam,

Patented July 1, 1924.

' UNITED ST C. WILKINSON, F LOS ANGELIS, G il. F.

.l1 DENIA.

JBINTING MACHINE.

Application filed January 18, 1922. Serial No.-580,20-8.

' To all 'whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRIS C. WILKINSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Im rovements in Imprinting Machines, of which the following is a specication.

My invention particularly pertains to a machine for imprinting indicia on articles of substantially spherical form, such as nuts, citrus fruits, ball confections, chewing gum and the like.

An object of my invention is to provide a machine of the above character which is capable of rapid output with a minimum of waste due to misprinting and without injury to the 'article acted on.

Another object is to provide effective means for imprinting on substantially yspherical articles while the latter are in motion and to 1provide means for feeding the articles sing y to a printing device from a hpper, bin, conveyor, or other similar device.

Another object is to provide means for insuring proper delivery and dischar e of the articles to and from the rinting evice so als) obviate possibility ci) clogging the mac e.

A further object is to provide a device for accurately imprinting on curved surfaces.

With the foregoing objects in view, together with such other objects and advantages as maysubsequently appear, my invention resides in the parts, and in the construction, arrangement and combination of p'lts or their equivalents hereinafter more described and claimed and illustrated in t e accompanying drawings in which;

Figure 1 is a view of the machine asiseen in vertical section, partly in elevation;

Fi 2 is a detail in section vshowing a modi ed form of the feedmg device;

- Fig. 3 is a detail in section as seen on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1,showing the manner of forming an imprint on a substantially spherical ob ect;

ig. 4 is a detail in section and elevation, as seen lon the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5. is a detail in plan, as seen in the direction indicated by the arrow 5 in Fig. 1.

More specicall 6 and 7 indicatea pair 'of superposed ro ers aixed to shafts 8 an 9 geared together b spur ars 10 and 11 mounted on the sha 8 an 9, whereby the rollers may be rotated in unison. The shaft 9 is fitted with a sprocket 12 engaged b a sprocket chain 13 passing around a`- sproc et wheel 14 on a drive shaft 15 adapted to b e driven from any .suitable source of power. The rollers 6 and 7 are formed on their peripheries with recesses 16 and 17 arranged so that the recesses 16 will be disposed opposite the recesses 17 as the rollers revolve, so that spherical articles delivered to the re cesses 17 as will presently be described may readily pass between the rollers. Encircling the roller 6 and spanning the recesses 16 is a iex-ible, resilient band 18 havin such tension as to normally retain a cylin rical form around the roller, and yet be adapted to yield when pressure is brought to bear thereon opposite the recesses, and formed on the outer surface of the band are raised protuberances 19 bearing suitable im rinting characters in the form of type w ich are flexible and are preferabl formed integral with the band; the ban and type being pillado of rubber, rubber composition or the An inking device 20 is provided for the purpose of 1nking the'type on the printing roller which device is here shown as comprising a air of rollers a and b carrying an lnking be t c; the roller a being arranged with its periphery adjacent to the periphery of the prlnting roller so that the type on the printing roller will be caused to bear against and frictionally engage the belt to eii'ect r0- tation of the belt and rollers and at the same time ink the type. Ink is fed to the belt from a reservoir 21 andis distributed thereover by means of a wiper 22 as the belt advances; the` wiper comprising a flexible strip bearin transversely of the belt.

Lea ing from a hopper 23 is a conveyor 24 adapted to feed the article to be imprinted from the hopper 23 to the imprinting device. The conveyor is here shown as com prising a trough section 25 connected at one end of its bottom wall by a loose hinge connection 26 to the hopper 23 adjacent a discharge opening 27 k1n the latter, which trough leads outwardly and downwardly from the hopper at a slight incline and communicates with a second trou h section 28 extending downwardly at as ar inclination and terminatin at its outer ower end,

d adjacent the roller The trough sections are here shown as hingedly connected together by hinge `29 connecting the outer end ot the bottom wall ofthe trough 25 with the upper end oil the bottom wall 'of the trough 28, whereby the trough sections may have articulate movement relative to each other, 'lhe lower end of the trouh section 28 is loosely supported on'a brac et 30 by a pin 3l on the racket extending into a slot 32, in a hanger 33, carried by the trough section 28. This mounting oi the trouh sections 25 and 28 permits their being vlrated vertically and at the same time oscillated laterally, so as to cause the articles delivered to the trough section 29 from the hopper to ads vance in the latter and be deposited singly into the trough section 28. 1

Means are provided for edecting the vibrating and oscillating movement of the trough section and here shown as comprising a vertically arranged connecting rod 3d, the .upper end of which engages the troughs and the lower end of which is provided with a sleeve encircling an eccentric 36 -on a shall-t 8'? fitted with a gear 38 meshing with a wor gear 39 on the shalt l5; the rod 34 is guided in an opening 35 and the bracket 30 in such nner that it may reciprocate and oscillate on rotation oi the eccentric.

e lower end ol the trough 28 is arranged to dischar cesses i7 in the ro ler 'l' as the latter rotates; the trough teinating at a point adjacent the upper portion ci the roller and the latter bein rotated in such direction as to litt the artic es as they are discharged from the trough,

As a means oi insuring the article moving between the rollers a yieldable guard t0 is arranged across the uper portion of the lower ...end oi the troug section 28 which guard is here shown as comprising a spiral spring, f

de a means lor insuring discharge otthe articles from the recesses l?, a yieldable wiper dl is provided which comprises a spiralspring and is arranged adjacent the lower ortion or roller l in such position as the atter rotates, the articles projecting from the recesses 17 will be enga by the wi er and ejected from the recessesu n the operation ci the invention the articles to be marked are laced in a hopper 23 from which they are ed thru the opening 2'? to the trough section 25 and caused to advance from the latter and pass thru trough section 28 bv vibration ot the trough section vertically and laterally, as before described., The articles ass into one ol the recesses 17' and are there y advanced between the rollers and bron ht lnto contact with the flexible type`r and its yieldable mounting ertendin over one ot the recesses 18 in the roller 6. he band 18 and the type ield under the ressure imposed thereon y the article so t at the type will conform to the curved suriaceot the articles, as in= the articles into the resheaves dicated in Fig. 8, so that the articles will receive the imprint el ythe inl'red character imprinted articles will be ejected therefromV f' by the vwiper tl.

As a means for insuring the articles being fed one at a time thru the trough 25 the construction shown in lli 2v may be em ployed il desired, in whic the trough section, as indicated at d2 is hinged at t3 to the rear edge ol a hopper del having an outwardly dared' open lower end catene7 above the bottom oil the trough d2 in such manner that articles carried 1n the hopper will befsupported by the trough. The lorward edge oi the hopper it is spaced from lthe bottom of the trough which is-inced.

@n downward movement oi the trough the v hopper and the bottom wall ol t trough is widened to permit the. passage ci one or more oi the articles to be imprinted and on upward movement of the trough section the space is restricted to prevent the passage oi. an article from the hopper at this moment. ln this manner the articles may Abe fed from the hopper with a slight la se et time between the succeeding articles, t us insuringagainst clogg ci' the leed mechanism,

n lt is obvious that by constructing the leed trough as shown it will be impossible for more than one article at a time to be released therefrom to the carrier roll, since the lowermost article inthe trough will be held :from delivery rst by thedpreceding article deposited in a recess an then by the intervening land or raised portion be@ tween the adjacent recesses. l

l claim:

, l. ln a printing device, a print roller formed with a series ol peripheral recesses, a tensioned yieldable member spann ning the recesses, and yieldable type on said member opposite the recesses.

2. )In a printing device, a printing roller formed with peri heral* recesses, a ten sioned dexible resi ient member spanning the recesses which will yield under pressure and return to normal w en relieved of pressure, and yieldable type on said member op posite the recesses.

3. ln a printing device, a printing roller, a carrier roller formed with article receiv ing recesses, said rollers arran to con vey articles in vthe recesses between the peripheries ol the rollers, -said printing roller being termed with peripheral recesses into which the articles may extend when passin between the rollers, and av tensioned yielda le type carrying member spag the recesses on the rinting roller.

t. ln a printing evice, a printing roller, a carrier roller termed with article receivc space between the forward 1r ol the lll@ said rollers arranged to convey articles in the recesses between the peripheries of the rollers, said printing roller being formed with peripheral recesses into which the articles may extend when passing between the rollers, a yieldable type carrying member spanning -the recesses on the rinting roller, means for deliverin ing recesses,

` artic es to be printed to the carrier roller, an 10 a spiral spring arranged transversely of the carrier roller adapted to operate on rotation of the carrier roller to engage and eject thearticles carried in the recesses.

5. In a printing device, a printing roller having a series of peripheral recesses, a cylindrical resilient band encircling said roller and spanning the recesses, and flexible imprinting characters formed on said band 0pposite said recesses.

HARRIS C. WILKINSON. 

